The various ropes (known as sheets) on a sailboat that are used for controlling the sails, and sailboat rig, are usually led around pulleys or sheaves, and secured typically in cam cleats which provide a quick means of manually securing or releasing the ropes.
In many sailboats the helmsman and crew are forced to sit on one side of the boat in order to counterbalance the forces of the wind on the sails, and accordingly, while sailing on one or other tack, it is impossible for the crew to move inboard, even as far as the center line of the boat. It is therefore the practice in many cases to provide for the accessibility of such control ropes or sheets on both sides of the boat so that all of the various controls may be operated on either tack without the crew having to move inboard.
Much ingenuity and experimentation has been expended in developing a variety of different control ropes and sheets, accessible from either side of the boat. The principle sheet or control rope on such a sailboat is usually the main sail sheet, i.e., the rope connecting the boom with the sailboat, by means of which the boom may be let out or pulled in. In the past, the main sheet was in many cases simply led through a pulley anchored along the center line of the sailboat, usually on the transom. However, in many more modern designs, it is desirable that the main sheet pulley shall be movable from side to side of the boat away from the center line. For this purpose, the main sheet pulley is mounted on a traveler consisting of a track way mounted transversely across the boat, and a traveler car which is slidable along the track way from side to side. The main sheet pulley is mounted on the traveler car.
In order to move the traveler car and position it in the right place for any particular wind or sailing condition, control ropes are provided which are operable from each side of the boat. Such control ropes are in the majority of cases fastened in cam cleats, of a conventional design, so that once the traveler is set in a desired position it will be held there.
This type of arrangement has always been subject to the serious disadvantage that when sitting for example on the starboard side of the boat the helmsman cannot reach the control rope on the port side of the boat and vice-versa. If for example the port side traveler control rope is cleated, and the helmsman is sitting on the starboard side of the boat, for example having just tacked from port to starboard tack, then it may be impossible for him to adjust the traveler position from the starboard side. It is then necessary to momentarily lean into the boat, release the port side traveler control rope, and then move back to the starboard side of the boat and operate the starboard side traveler. All of this must be done while still holding the main sheet rope itself, and controlling the tiller.
It is therefore clearly desirable that a traveler may be provided with some form of cleat releasing means by means of which a rope cleated on one side of the boat may be released from the other side of the boat.